Single-radio mobile devices have been rapidly evolving toward multi-radio mobile devices to facilitate the use of different RATs when available. In addition, the set of applications running on these mobile devices is increasingly diversifying. While some of these applications may be well suited to run over conventional access networks, such as a 3GPP access network, other applications may be well suited to run over other access systems. In some environments (e.g., home, office, campus, etc.), it may be beneficial to exploit the multi-radio capability of mobile devices.
One issue with exploiting the multi-radio capability of mobile devices is that because of the restrictions in access network specifications (such as 3GPP Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Rel-8 (Evolved Packet System (EPS)), a mobile device may not able to access the same PDN via multiple access network interfaces simultaneously. Although a mobile terminal may be able to establish a single PDN connection or multiple simultaneous PDN connections, all the traffic exchanged by the mobile device, regardless of which PDN connection it belongs to, is routed through the same access network. Individual IP flows within a PDN connection cannot be treated separately. This inhibits the full exploitation of the multi-radio capabilities of a mobile device, which would be particularly beneficial for multi-media content distribution.
Thus, what is needed is a PDN and method for RAN-agnostic content distribution that allows a mobile device to more fully exploit its multi-radio capabilities. What is also needed is a PDN that can dynamically direct IP packets of service flows generated by different applications and belonging to the same PDN connection to available RATs. Also needed is a PDN that can dynamically allocate IP packets of different service flows across different RANs to enhance the user experience while optimizing the connectivity cost for network operators.